1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing program, wherein texts are searched by use of images.
2. Related Art
One mode of a text search is a case where an electronic document obtained by reading an original by means of a scanner is subjected to OCR (Optical Character Reader) processing and a text search is performed over an object area, which has been recognized as a text part by processing, by means of specifying (inputting) a keyword. In relation to such a text search based on a keyword, when a global search, or the like, is performed over, e.g., an object text part containing a huge volume of texts, a time which elapses from commencement of a text search until the end of the search (hereinafter called a search time) becomes extremely long.
A known technique is to utilize an index as feature information about an image in order to perform a text search at high speed.
However, at the time of a text search, when the feature information about an image, such as the above-described index, is specified, operation for specifying purpose becomes very troublesome. Consequently, shortening a search time encounters difficulty in appropriately and simply specifying conditions for a text search.